Intensifying efforts to end obstetric fistula

Report of the Secretary-General

The present report has been prepared in response to General Assembly resolution 69/148. Obstetric fistula is a devastating childbirth injury that leaves women and girls incontinent and often stigmatized and isolated from their families and communities. It is a stark outcome of gender inequalities, the denial of human rights and poor access to reproductive health services, including maternal and newborn care, and an indication of high levels of maternal death and disability. The report outlines efforts made by the international community at the global, regional and national levels to end obstetric fistula. It offers recommendations to intensify those efforts, with a human rights-based approach, so as to end obstetric fistula within a generation, as an integral component of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and leaving no one behind, by improving maternal health, strengthening health systems, reducing health inequities and increasing the levels and predictability of funding.

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